Wednesday, May 27, 2020

7 Day Trading Card Challenge: Day Two

Today's Challenge: A card from current release year (any sport) with a unique photo.

Does 2019 count?


2019 Topps Series 1 - #48 Pittsburgh Pirates

This year in the flagship set, Topps included ballpark photos from all 30 major league clubs. Card #48 is a shot of PNC Park taken from the press box. I've spent many, many hours of my life at PNC Park and I know the building inside and out. It's consistently ranked in the top three or four best ballparks in the majors. I truly believe it's one of the best places on the planet to watch a baseball game. I've been to Fenway, Wrigley, and Petco Park. I'm biased, but PNC Park is a strong contender for #1. 

Sadly, I don't believe Topps did PNC Park any justice by choosing this photo. It's a cloudy day and the crowd looks to be maybe a 2/3 capacity at best. The left field bleachers are empty. While the Pirates rarely sell out games these days, there are a few dates that will always get to capacity - the first of which is Opening Day. 

When I saw that Topps was including a 15-card insert ballpark photo set in 2020 Opening Day, I was certain PNC Park would grab a spot and redeem itself. I was wrong. After some light research, I believe that only parks that hosted a true opener were included. The Pirates opened as a visitor. 

Either way, Opening Day in Pittsburgh deserves it's own baseball card. As you'll see below, a home opener at PNC Park is worthy of a frame. I took that picture at the Opener in 2016. I'm no photographer and it was shot on my iPhone using the panoramic feature. 

@Topps: I'm for hire! I'm sure we can work something out.. 


This inspired me to mess around with the Custom Card feature on Topps.com and I was able to whip this up:

Not bad!


Thanks again to Tim at Cardpocalypse for the great idea. 

3 comments:

  1. Yours is definitely an improvement!

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  2. Nice custom! I think 2019 should count as 'current year' since the 2020 season hasn't started and the card selection is unusually limited for this time of year. Plus those 2019 stadium cards are just fantastic.

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  3. I much prefer your version to he Series one. I think I'm one of the few that is happy about the ballpark cards returning to the product.

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